Another day at work

August is the month where I pull my finger out and try really hard at work to make it happen. And to make me want to be here.

One day in the future when I decide to move overseas to work for free again, I will understand how hard it is and how much you mostly just want to be at home in your old job even though it was pretty shit too. I will probably choose to live somewhere that I can buy fresh watermelons and can't buy mutton.

"My work plan and June report are on the Bat (our shared email address). Have a look and let's talk about it tomorrow. From the work plan, there is only research that I can conduct with no support. I would like to have more direction in my assignment so I can help more"

I wrote a letter to one of the guys that I work with that I think I'm suppose to actually work WITH and left it on his desk. Above is what it said. Short, easy, simple and to the point. Hopefully, anyway.

I talked to him today and he wanted me to rework my work plan so we could have monthly boxes to say in percentages how much of that part I'd done. Tomorrow we will talk about it more. I hope we won't just talk about what bit I'll do in what month because that doesn't help at all. I need to know details. I can't just  roll with "meetings and discussions with local project staff and government beneficiaries' and know what the hell to do/who to talk to/what to research. Similarly it is equally as hard to "review local level pasture management plans" when they are all written in Mongolian and held on a computer that I don't have access to.

I now understand the position they tried to fill needed to be filled with someone as experienced and as clever as my dad. I am not knowledgeable/trained enough to be the help they want. Which means they're going to have to be flexible with what I do and how I do it. I can find answers but it will be slower. I can't come up with ideas when I don't understand the original functionality (especially when it's written in Mongolian).


We still have no water in our house what so ever. We are meeting a guy this evening who may be interested in moving in (when the water comes back). I'm still at my friend's house and it's so great. It's so quite and comfortable and they're great. I don't really want to move home. I like just having a little bit of stuff there, having a really nice shower that works all the time and just being around them. It's a lovely positive influence on me right now: Miss Negativity, August 2011.

I booked my flights to London for Christmas. I haven't told my boss - just like I haven't told her that I am going home for two weeks in October. I've already started freaking out that I'm going to die in a plane crash on the way to London. I'm flying Aeroflot and I did a bit of research - they didn't come up as the 'most dangerous airline'. They didn't even warrant a mention. I've survived a Garuda Airlines flight but I'm not so sure about this cheap ($1150 AUD return) Aeroflot flight. I'm not ready to die in an aeroplane accident. BUT I am looking forward to Christmas. We have a nice group of people and I have already started dreaming about what we'll eat. So much delicious ham and turkey and fresh salad and baked vegies and pudding with custard. It's become a habit now in my early morning dreams: food. I dream for hours about 20 course degustations, rooms filled with salad, comfortable houses filled with easily accessible delicious food.